Five mural artists from around the world, including Cape Town graffiti pioneer Falko, recently collaborated on a month-long project to brighten up parts of Joburg.

The project, known as "I ART JOBURG", has its roots in Cape Town, where local artist Ricky Lee Gordon collaborated with other local mural artists to spruce up Lower Woodstock with murals. The project was dubbed "I ART WOODSTOCK".

Murals were painted on walls of houses in Gympie Street and its surrounds and the project resulted in an art exhibition, in collaboration with Adidas, on the murals at the Cape Town City Hall.

The project has spread to Soweto and now to Joburg's inner city.

Artists collaborating with Falko on the project included Cameron Platter from Durban, Steve "espo" Powers from New York, Remed from Madrid, Roa from Belgium, and Martha Cooper from New York, who also documented the process.

Cooper started documenting hip hop culture in the 1970s while working for the New York Post.

Besides writing the first article on hip hop, she published one of the first books on graffiti.

Falko said he loved meeting Cooper, whom he described as being humble despite her achievements. "Martha Cooper is one of the reasons why hip hop exists worldwide. She was documenting hip hop before the word ' hip hop' existed."

Falko, pictured, said the project gave him the opportunity to produce a split-piece, which was like a puzzle, something not done anywhere else in the world.

"The idea with my piece was to show what South Africa can do because I am the only one in the world who is doing split-pieces," Falko said.

The mural took him four days - an experience that included "being stuck in the middle of the sky because we ran out of the diesel for the crane or when the crane didn't work properly".

Falko, who also did a split-piece project in Darling and Pella called "DarlingMadeMeDoIt", is preparing for a trip to India this weekend.